The Real Heroes of Business

Fromm ( The Ten Commandments of Business and How to Break Them ) and Schlesinger, who teaches business administration at Harvard Business School, here profile 14 superlative service employees whose skills and personal appeal are their employers' greatest asset: among them are a food-chain waitress whose regular customers wait in line to be served by her and an auto mechanic who is even more interested in correcting that funny noise than the customer is. Such paragons might seem too good to be true, but the authors advise how to find and train employees to ``think like a customer'' and bring in repeat business to boost net profits. Concern and sensitivity are key factors here. Consider the Roto-Rooter man who calms down a party hostess stricken with toilet-overflow, clears the drain and cleans up afterward but wouldn't presume to use that toilet himself. Basically, this book is about hiring $25,000-a-year service workers who over time can generate $125,000 in annual incremental company profits. There's no mention of employee profit-sharing, though. Author tour. (May)